Two Irish men have wed in Dublin so they won’t have to pay €50,000 inheritance tax on a house.
Matt Murphy and Michael O’Sullivan are both straight but decided to marry after finding out how much tax Matt would have to pay on the house he desired to leave in in his will to Michael – his carer.
Father of three Michael, 58, said:
I’ve known Matty for 30 years. We became very friendly after my second relationship broke up. I have been brining out in my car to various parties and all that kind of thing.
He became friends with all my friends, they all loved him.
83-year-old Matt even put him up when became homeless.
Michael added:
I stayed over with him for a while and eventually Matt said ‘Why don’t you come and stay here?’ I would go over and stay with him the odd time but never full time.
Eventually Matt said the only way he could pay me was to leave me the house. He said he would give me the house so I have somewhere to live when he goes.
The trouble was that a huge tax bill would follow, meaning he’d have to sell the house to pay it. But a friend’s suggestion changed all that.
Michael added:
Murphy was chatting to a friend down the country in Cashel, Co Tipperary, and she jokingly said we should get married. Then one night he turned around and said it to me and I said I would marry him.
Speaking about the LGBT community in Ireland the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2015, he said:
The equality gay and lesbian people did for this country, that they fought hard for, they were discriminated against for most of their lives, they quality for themselves but also for everybody else.
The lads were wed in a former hospital on Dublin’s Grand Canal Street. The ceremony was followed by a meal for five at a local Gasworks bar.
